Spotting scope reco (2 Viewers)

[brianjpressman]

hello!

My mother in law has offered to buy me a spotting scope of my choice. I was thinking in the $1-$2k range. We live on a hill and have a nice view of the ocean, beach and la city. Any recos? The scope will only be used inside primarily for landscape viewing. Maybe some birds too. It doesn’t need to be portable. I don’t want anything made in china. I was looking at some kowas but not sure which model.

would love everyone’s recommendations.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

It's our pleasure, as a long standing supporting vendor here, to discuss the different available options and special opportunities with you. Please give a call, 516-217-1000, when you have the time. Thanks

 

[grackle314]

If looking at new scopes plus tripod plus any camera accessories, read through lots of opinions here, call a vendor or three, and try some out at a shop to see how you like using them. If I guess your location correctly as Los Angeles area, you can find shops to try out a scope such as Optics4Birding in Irvine.

 

[William Lewis]

Mother's in law can get a bad rap but it sounds like you've got a good one!

 

[Tringa45]

Hi,

And welcome to Birdforum.
Having an elevated position you would be less afflicted with air turbulance and you could make more frequent use of high magnifications.
A 90 mm scope at 60x magnification would still give you a 1,5 mm exit pupil, but the 1 mm exit pupil of a 60 mm scope at this magnification would be less comfortable.
The catch is that the top large aperture scopes from Kowa and Swarovski (and Leica and Zeiss with reservations) are in excess of $3000 and cheaper scopes will fall short in performance. Medium priced binoculars can come very close to the top tier, but that unfortunately doesn't apply to scopes.
The Meopta S2 is also an excellent scope but well over $2000 and the only others that occur to me are the Kowa 773 (angled) and 774 (straight) These are being discontinued after the introduction of the 66 and may be available at reduced prices.
The alternative would be a used top tier scope but in any event, new or used, you should test before you buy.
Even for indoor use you will need a substantial tripod but as portability is not a priority, this could be aluminium or wooden..

John

 

[Bill Atwood]

hello!

My mother in law has offered to buy me a spotting scope of my choice. I was thinking in the $1-$2k range. We live on a hill and have a nice view of the ocean, beach and la city. Any recos? The scope will only be used inside primarily for landscape viewing. Maybe some birds too. It doesn’t need to be portable. I don’t want anything made in china. I was looking at some kowas but not sure which model.

would love everyone’s recommendations.

You will also need a suitable tripod and head.

 

[tenex]

There are Labor Day sales. Example: Meopta S2 with 30-60x eyepiece for $2580 at cameralandny.com. That's close to what I paid for mine a couple of years ago (with the 20-70) and thought a good deal. Otherwise you might want to wait for Black Friday. Remember that scopes are sometimes priced without an eyepiece. All are "portable" although ~60mm are more so, and you may enjoy ~80mm more for this purpose.

 

[jring]

Hi,

first of all, welcome to BF!

A full size scope of around 80mm aperture (and that's what you want for landscape many kilometers away) in good quality and not MiC will not happen for 1k USD, especially not with a stable tripod. Closest new option would be the Opticron MM4 77mm with HDF zoom (about $1150 at bhphotovideo) or with the SDLv3 zoom ($1300). The more upmarket Opticron offers are MiJ, the quality is decent and the brand is well liked on here... Also this will leave some budget for a tripod and head.

Another good option would be the Nikon Monarch 20-60x82 - but this is $1600 and not much left for a tripod and head. Nikon spotters have a good track record over here - I haven't heard of a real lemon here.

You should learn how to star test your scope after you have received it and do that inside the return period - or do it before buying with a diy artificial star (make very small pinhole into aluminum foil on glass surface, tape foil before led flashlight and observe at 70-100ft) and get the example you tested.

Another option would be a used astro refractor - a nice and slow f15 achromat like a Vixen 80L (or P102L if you can find one and have the space) with a wooden tripod and Super Polaris (or probably SP-DX for 100mm) mount will give nice images and look good - but it's neither portable nor waterproof like the spotter and will show an image mirrored along the vertical axis - unless you use an amici prism which is hard to get in good quality.

In general, observing through windows is not ideal as the window panes will introduce aberrations. If it can't be avoided, try to to so at a close to 90 degree angle.

Joachim